Self Disclosure

Interview Skills - Self Disclosure

Self-disclosure is not about baring your soul; it is not about telling people everything about yourself, and it's not about bragging about all your successes.

Self-disclosure is all about giving your interviewer more of a flavour of who you are rather than the dry facts of what you've done or even what you're interested in.

Common Ground

Self-disclosure is also a way to create some common ground between you and your listener.

For instance

Version one:

"When I ran the XYZ project, we finished on time and under budget."

Version two:

"When I ran the XYZ project, we finished on time and under budget.

I think I consumed a gallon of coffee a day and got more familiar than I would ever want with late-night radio trying to undo a mistake one of my colleagues made so we could finish on time.

My family thought I was some kind of phantom they hardly ever saw me for those two months.

But I made it up to them by letting everyone have a Dad'll Fix it wish!"

Self Disclosure is Personal

What happens here is that personal disclosure is about allowing some vulnerability and humanness' to colour what you are saying and make your discussion far more appealing.

Self-disclosure can be used in any setting - a job interview, a chat with a casual friend, someone you want to get to know better.

Give Them More of You

The idea is to make yourself more approachable, more welcoming, more interesting by including a little bit of a revelation.

If you can admit to something that is completely unexpected, all the better.

When you use personal disclosure during a job interview, use it judiciously, but also know that it will give the interviewer a more rounded picture of who you really are.